A Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Ukraine, 2009-2011), historian, college teacher, and retired nonprofit director, Fran offers a multi-layered perspective on current issues, culture and community. A different voice. A unique perspective. From the bottom up.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Big Banks = Big Criminals?

Campaigning for the Senate in Massachuetts,
against Republican Scott Brown..
Photo by DarrenMcCollester/Getty Images

Newly-elected Senator Elizabeth Warren’s first public hearing on the prestigious Senate Banking Committee must have sent great
positive vibes to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, and also to Barney Frank. I'd be smiling, too. She is filling big shoes, and doing it
well. She showed the same concerns for the little guys as her predecessors. And she is not
afraid to take on big bullies like huge banks.

It was federal government regulators on the hot seat this time, however. Why, Warren
wondered, have none of the Wall
Street financial institutions been prosecuted for their transgressions or
brought to trial? Not a one since the financial crisis. Warren
is on it, in a way that former Secretary of the Treasurer Tim Gaithner never was. It’s why so many of us questioned his
effectiveness. Sure some of these big
guys have been fined--they needed some token slap on the wrist--but they haven’t been brought to trial.

"How come? Obvious question. Sen. Warren said that she was
worried that banks are simply paying fines from the profits they earned
breaking regulatory rules. Such a simple
but powerful expression of concern.

Wall Street bankers, who poured lots of money into supporting Warren's opponent Scott Brown, viewed such questions and musings as "aggressive," but to me they seemed honest and plain spoken.

The giant Wall Street institutions, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America among them,
have gouged millions from customers. They've engaged in questionable profit-making
ventures here and abroad (in Greece and Italy, for instance). They have scoffed at federal regulations, paid billions to executives after being bailed out with public money, and basically have gotten away with...well, lots of stuff. Why haven't they been tried for breaking the laws? Warren is asking good
questions. Americans deserve some good
answers.For more information about these financial behemoths and their quest for power and profits see the insightful, and frightening, PBS Frontline investigative story "Money, Power and Wall Street" (pbs.org/frontline).